The Great Recession, The Balkans and The Euro

About the Book

The recession, which started in the USA in autumn 2007, spread to the rest of the world in 2008 and 2009. The Balkan countries were hit hard by the recession. Closely tied to the European Union, they felt the full blow of the crisis in the Eurozone. In a narrow sense, this crisis was caused by weaknesses, contradictions, and inconsistencies of the EMU. In a wider sense, the common denominator of the Great Recession and the crisis in the Eurozone could be found in huge imbalances generated by market fundamentalism and the inability of the neoliberal concept of capitalism to achieve major socioeconomic goals.

About the Author

Tahir Mahmutefendic was born in Tuzla, Yugoslavia, now Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1959, his family moved to Sarajevo, where he finished his education in 1978, gaining first-class honours from the faculty of Economics at the University of Sarajevo, where he subsequently worked as a lecturer in political economics and finance. In 1987, he earned a master of philosophy degree in international economics from Belgrade University and, in 1996, a PhD degree from the same university. He published numerous articles in various Yugoslav journals, mainly in the field of international finance. Tahir Mahmutefendic has been economics editor of the South Slav Journal from 1996. He wrote more than fifty articles and book reviews for the journal. Tahir Mahmutefendic was a youth chess champion of Bosnia and Herzegovina and is a Bosnian chess master. He speaks eight languages.